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Sills, Ramsay and Gray were wharfingers and agents with premises at Hambro Wharf and Three Cranes Wharf. The firm had its origins in a business established by Jonathan Sills, who first appears in trade directories in 1771 described as a merchant of 9 Upper Thames Street.

By 1790 Jonathan Sills had taken two of his sons, Joseph (b 1766) and Jonathan junior (b 1771), into partnership, trading as Jonathan Sills and Sons, merchants and wharfingers of Hambro Wharf and 217 Upper Thames Street. Jonathan Sills senior died in 1800, but his sons continued the business.

In about 1812, Joseph and Jonathan Sills entered into partnership with Thomas Ramsay and Robert Gray, trading as Sills, Ramsay and Gray, wharfingers and agents of Hambro Wharf and Three Cranes Wharf. The firm was styled Sills, Ramsay and Gray, 1813-1818; variously as Sills, Ramsay and Sills or Sills, Ramsay and Company, 1819-1821; and Sills and Company, 1822-3. It disappears from the directories in 1824.

Edwin Robert Sills (d 1943) was a watch and chronometer finisher of 21 Foyle Road, Tottenham. His father, William Sills, was a noted finisher of marine chronometers; his grandfather, also William Sills, was a Coventry watchmaker who came to London in 1840 and took up marine chronometer finishing. When demand for marine chronometers fell off after the First World War, Edwin Sills turned to watch and pocket chronometer finishing, producing work for Victor Kullberg in particular.

At the time of the 1901 census, Edwin Sills was working with his father as a watch finisher from their home at 31 Cressington Road, Stoke Newington. By 1942/3, and almost certainly earlier, he was working at 21 Foyle Road, Tottenham.

In 1965 Dorothy Silberston convened the first meeting of the Relatives of Mentally Ill Patients in Cambridge. Up until 1972 she was secretary of this organisation whose members aims were to learn more about mental illness, support each other and to campaign for health service improvements. Her involvement originated from personal experiences, her daughter Catherine having been diagnosed and hospitalized with schizophrenia in 1961. Dorothy was one of the 400 people who contacted John Pringle after reading his article, 'A Case of Schizophrenia', in The Times, May 1970. She went on to become one of the founder members of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship. During the 1970s she contributed to the NSF publication Living with Schizophrenia by the Relatives and helped draft NSF comments on the DHSS Review of the Mental Health Act 1959 and their memorandum to the Royal Commission on the NHS (1977).

Between 1982 and 1997 she was member and later chair of the NSF Medico-legal Committee and Honorary Parliamentary Officer and did significant work on the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill introduced in 1981 by Lord Mottistone. Between 1982 and 1995 she held positions as an elected NSF Council member, co-opted Council member and Vice Chairman. From 1996 to 2001 Dorothy Silberston was Honorary Vice-President of the NSF. She resigned from the Fellowship after it changed its name to Rethink.

Dorothy Silberston was very active in local politics and the community. In 1960-1961 she helped establish the Cambridge Association for the Advancement of State Education and from 1969-1973 she served as a Cambridge County Councillor (Labour). She was awared the MBE for her work in connection with the NSF.

From 1973-1980 Dorothy Silberston held the post of Keeper of Nuffield Place, former home of William Morris, Lord Nuffield. In her latter years she continued her involvement with the house (designed by Oswald Partridge Milne in 1914), its history, and survival as a place of historical interest open to the public. She died in 2006.

The National Schizophrenia Fellowship, a registered charity, was founded by journalist John Pringle in 1972 with the aim of acting as the national organisation for all matters concerning people with experience of schizophrenia and related conditions, their families, carers and dependants. Its origins dated back to the public response to an open letter by Pringle to the Times in May 1970 in which he described his own experience of dealing with schizophrenia in a family member. The letter, as well as describing the huge difficulties faced by carers, highlighted problems caused by the closure of large hospitals and lack of adequate community services.

The NSF National Office was based at Kingston upon Thames. It was supplemented by regional offices and Regional Committees, Project Commiteees and a network over 150 local groups. The Groups were run by volunteer co-ordinators, mostly relatives caring for an individual suffering from schizophrenia. Local groups met regularly and organised a range of activities to inform local people, provide support, influence local professionals and liaise with other agencies. The NSF was financed by charitable grants and donations, fund-raising, Local and Health Authority contracts, legacies and members' subscriptions, with about 5% of total income received directly from central government.

By the early 1990s the NSF had over 6000 members, ran over 150 regional projects in the housing, employment and day care fields all over the country. An Advice and Advocacy Service was also provided, answering thousands of queries each year on all apsects of the care and treatment of severe mental illness as well as welfare benefits, carers' problems, accommodation, holidays and other related issues.

The NSF campaigned vigorously for the rate of mental hospital closures to be slowed to allow for the proper development of community facilities for mentally ill people, and for more trained social workers and community psychiatric nurses as well as small domestic style units for those unable to cope outside hospital.

National conferences were held regularly as part of a national and regional programme of training to raise awareness of mental illness. Courses were run for social workers, psychiatrists, GPs, police, and the probation service. The NSF changed its name to Rethink in July 2002. At this point the organisation altered its focus to encompass all severe mental illnesses. Rethink currently have a membership of over 8300. The Head office is in Finsbury Square, London.

Incorporated in Bermuda on 30 January 1957 as an open-ended Investment Company.

Investment Department of Kleinwort Sons and Company Limited had a contract with Signet Fund (Bermunda) Limited, an open end fund managed by Bank of Bermuda, mainly for UK residents to invest in the USA and Canada. Kleinwort Benson Limited and later Kleinwort Benson Investment Management Limited acted as their investment advisor.

MAGIC was the codeword used by the United States to identify deciphered Japanese diplomatic communications immediately prior to and throughout World War Two. During the war, the term MAGIC was also used for deciphered Japanese military communications, as was the term TOP SECRET ULTRA. The documents in this collection are restricted to diplomatic communications. MAGIC included all decrypted messages in Japanese diplomatic codes and ciphers, the most valuable of which were those encoded by the cipher machine known to the US as PURPLE. The ability to break into PURPLE meant that the Americans were able to read the most secret of Japanese diplomatic communications from before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 Dec 1941, to the end of the war in the Pacific. By way of the Japanese ambassador to Berlin, Lt Gen Hiroshi Oshima, MAGIC intelligence also provided information throughout the war about German plans and operations against the Soviet Union and the Allies. The PURPLE cipher machine was used by Japanese diplomatic and military personnel and operated by substituting ordinary typewriter keys, through a series of stepping switches and electrical matrices, into substitute letters. Theoretically, the possible substitutions by the machine cipher were endless and thus difficult to crack. Through MAGIC, however, American cryptanalysts found beachheads into Japanese ciphers from phrases used regularly and repeatedly and available in plain text. Leading the US attempt to break PURPLE was William F Friedman, a cryptanalyst who successfully broke German codes during World War One. Friedman was an expert in statistics an probability and, aided by a cryptanalyst from the US Navy, Harry L Clark, and a team of mathematicians, he successfully cracked the PURPLE code on 25 Sep 1940. Once the Freidman group enciphered PURPLE, they constructed four machines to duplicate its functions and distributed them to Washington, DC, the Philippines, and Bletchley Park, Great Britain. Upon receipt of the PURPLE machine, the British began decrypting diplomatic messages to and from Japanese embassies in Europe, the Far East and the Middle East and, by Jun 1941, had received a second machine for Singapore. Although it revealed the imminence of the war, MAGIC had little operational value. It did not reveal Pearl Harbor as a target of attack, as Japanese diplomats were often not briefed on military plans. MAGIC did, however, reveal Japanese intentions in 1941 of breaking off negotiations with Washington and London, hence indicating plans for war. Through the coded traffic of Japanese ambassador to Berlin, Hiroshi, the Allies were notified of a possible German invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, German apprehensions of waging war on more than one front, and German troop dispositions against the Allied invasion of France in Jun 1944. MAGIC's final operation of the war was its revelation to the Allies of Japan's desperate effort to secure Soviet mediation of the war in the Pacific.

Sigerist Society

Named after Henry Ernest Sigerist (1891-1957) the Swiss medical historian, the Sigerist Society was founded in 1947 by a group of left wing doctors with a strong Marxist component. They met 2 or 3 times a year to discuss medicine in society, and wider philosophical issues. Members included Philip Hart, Martin Roff, Richard Doll and Julian Tudor Hart. The Society probably ended in 1955.

Sir Edward Henry Sieveking was born in Bishopsgate, London, on 24 August 1816, the eldest son of Edward Henry Sieveking, a merchant from Hamburg who had moved to London in 1809. His father had returned to Germany and served in the Hanseatic Legion during the War of Liberation, 1813-14. Sieveking's early education took place in England. From 1830 he was educated in Germany, in Ratzeburg and Berlin. In 1837 he entered the University of Berlin where he studied anatomy and physiology, the latter under the celebrated physiologist Johannes Peter Muller. In 1838 he undertook surgical work at Bonn. He then returned to England where he took up his medical studies at University College, London, for two years, and then at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated MD in 1841.

Sieveking spent a further year abroad in 1842, visiting the hospitals of Paris, Vienna, Wurzburg, and Berlin. He then settled and began to practice in the English colony in Hamburg. Whilst there he was associated with founding a children's hospital, with his aunt Miss Emilia Sieveking, philanthropist and pioneer of nursing. During this time he published A Treatise on Ventilation (1846). In 1847 he returned to London and became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. He began to practice in London, first in Brook Street and then in Bentinck Street. He took an active part in advocating nursing the sick poor, and produced his first English publication, The Training Institutions for Nurses and the Workhouses (1849).

In 1851 Sieveking became assistant physician at St Mary's Hospital, and so one of its original staff. He lectured on materia medica at the Hospital's medical school for the next sixteen years. In 1852 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Two years later he co-authored A Manual of Pathological Anatomy (1854; 2nd edition, 1875), with Charles Handfield Jones, his colleague at St Mary's. The publication was illustrated with reproductions of Sieveking's watercolours. In 1855 Sieveking assisted John Lumsden Propert in founding Epsom College, a school for the sons of medical men, and was its first honorary secretary. From 1855 until 1860 he edited the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review. He also contributed to many other medical periodicals, especially on the subjects of nervous diseases, climatology, and nursing. In 1857 he moved to Manchester Square, London, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In 1858 Sieveking invented an aesthesiometer, an instrument for testing the sensation on the skin. In the same year he published his most important work, On Epilepsy and Epileptiform Seizures, their Causes, Pathology, and Treatment (2nd edition, 1861). He was a supporter of the reforms of the Royal College of Physicians of that year, which gave powers, such as the election of the president, formerly enjoyed by the eight elect of the College, to the whole body of fellows. In 1861 he was elected president of the Harveian Society, a reflection of his status and reputation within the medical world.

In 1863 he was appointed physician in ordinary to the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The following year he was appointed physician to the London Lock Hospital and the National Hospital for the Paralysed and Epileptic. It was also in 1864 that he founded, with the scientist Sir David Brewster and the physician Charles Murchison, the Edinburgh University Club in London. He was promoted to full physician of St Mary's in 1866, after sixteen years in the out-patient wards. In the same year he delivered the Croonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians. Sieveking held a number of prominent positions within the College including that of censor, several times between 1869 and 1881, and in 1877 was Harveian Orator.

In 1873 Sieveking became physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria. He was also a member of the council of the British Medical Association, representing for eight years the Metropolitan Counties Branch. In 1876 he delivered the Address in Medicine at the annual meeting in Sheffield. He was largely responsible for the creation of the Association's medal for distinguished merit, established in 1877. In 1884 he received an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh, on its tercentenary. Two years later Sieveking was knighted. He retired from the active staff of St Mary's in 1887, and became consulting physician. The following year he was elected vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians, and president of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society. Also in 1888 Queen Victoria made him physician in ordinary. The following year he retired from the London Lock Hospital.

In 1895 Sieveking became president of the British Balneological and Climatological Society. He was made Knight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, in 1896. Edward VII, after his accession to the throne, made Sieveking his physician extraordinary in 1902.

He had married, in 1849, Jane daughter of John Ray, J.P. They had five sons and three daughters. Sieveking died at his house in Manchester Square on 24 February 1904, aged 87. He was buried in the family grave at Abney Park cemetery, Stoke Newington.

Publications:
A Treatise on Ventilation (1846)
The Training Institutions for Nurses and the Workhouses (1849)
A Manual of Pathological Anatomy, Carl Rokitansky (vol. ii, London, 1849) translated by Sieveking
A Manual of the Nervous Diseases of Man, Moritz Heinrich Romberg (2 vols., London, 1853) translated by Sieveking
British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review (editor, from 1855)
On Epilepsy and Epileptiform Seizures, their Causes, Pathology, and Treatment (London, 1858; 2nd ed. 1861)
A Manual of Pathological Anatomy, with Charles Handfield Jones (London, 1854; 2nd ed. 1875)
The Medical Adviser in Life Assurance (London, 1874; 2nd ed. 1882)
The Harveian Oration (London, 1877)

On June 10, 1940, the Gestapo took control of Terezín (Theresienstadt), a fortress, built in 1780-1790 in what is now the Czech Republic, and set up prison in the Small Fortress (Kleine Festung). By 24 November 1941, the Main Fortress (große Festung, ie the town Theresienstadt) was turned into a walled ghetto. The function of Theresienstadt was to provide a front for the extermination operation of Jews. To the outside it was presented by the Nazis as a model Jewish settlement, but in reality it was a concentration camp.

Theresienstadt was also used as a transit camp for European Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps. Dr. Siegfried Seidl, an SS colonel, served as the first camp commandant in 1941. Seidl oversaw the labour of 342 young men, known as the Aufbaukommando, who converted the fortress into a concentration camp. Although the Aufbaukommando were promised that they and their families would be spared transport, eventually all were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, for Sonderbehandlung, or gassing without selection.

Sidney Webb College, a day training college which provided courses for men and women on primary school teaching and for women teaching domestic subjects in secondary schools, was established by London County Council in 1961 as a constituent college of the University of London Institute of Education. It was accommodated initially in premises in Horseferry Road, Westminster, and, serving mature students, was non-residential. In 1965 responsibility passed from the London County Council to the Inner London Education Authority, and the college also moved, to premises in Barrett Street, near Baker Street. Courses to teach English, speech and drama in secondary schools were offered in conjunction with the Central School of Speech and Drama, Embassy Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, from c1973. The college became part of the Polytechnic of Central London as the Sidney Webb School of Education in 1975 and closed in 1980.

Commissioners for the care of sick and hurt seamen were first appointed during the Dutch wars. Between 1692 and 1702 and between 1713 and 1715 their duties were performed by the Commissioners of the Register Office and from 1715 until 1717 by two Commissioners of the Navy Board. One Commissioner each from the Sick and Hurt Board and the Navy Board then conducted the business from the Navy Office until 1740, when at least two Commissioners of the Sick and Hurt Board were appointed during peace and up to five in wartime. This Board appointed ships' surgeons and their assistants, ensured that they were equipped and supplied with medicines, superintended the dispensers who issued medicines, supervised the furnishing and equipment of hospitals and hospital ships, examined and cleared accounts and made returns of the sick and wounded to the Admiralty and Navy Boards. In 1743 the Board was also made responsible for the care of prisoners of war. In 1796 this duty was transferred to the Transport Board which in 1806 also became responsible for caring for the sick and wounded seamen.

Sicherheitsdienst x SD

The Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS (SD-RfSS, Security Service) was primarily the intelligence service of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Nazi Party. It was the first Nazi Party intelligence organisation to be established and was often considered a 'sister organization' with the Gestapo.

Francis Sibson was born on 21 May 1814 at Cross Canonby, Cumberland (now Cumbria). He spent most of his childhood in Edinburgh, after his parents moved there in 1819. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to John Lizars, surgeon and anatomist. He received his diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (LRCS) in 1831. He treated cholera patients during the 1831-32 epidemic, at Leith, Newhaven and Edinburgh. He then entered general practice for a short time at Cockermouth, Cumberland, before resuming his medical studies at Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals in London. As part of his studies he spent some time, in 1833, in the pathology department of Guy's, where he became a friend and pupil of the curator Thomas Hodgkin, physician and philanthropist. Sibson qualified licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA) in 1835, and became resident surgeon and apothecary to the Nottingham General Hospital.

He published a number of papers on the physiology and pathology of respiration, which attracted attention to him and increased his reputation. His first paper, `A Flexible Stethoscope', was published in the Medical Gazette (1840). In 1843 he joined the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (later the British Medical Association). In 1848 he left his position at Nottingham General Hospital and returned to London. He graduated MB and MD from London in the same year, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1849. It was also in 1849 that he became a member of the Royal College of Physicians. Sibson took a house in Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, and built up a successful private practice. During the winter of 1849-50 he gave a course of demonstrations on visceral anatomy. He also lectured on medicine at Lane's School, which adjoined St George's Hospital.

Upon the foundation of St Mary's Hospital in 1851 he was appointed one of its first physicians. Sibson subsequently lectured on medicine at the hospital's medical school. He delivered the Goulstonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians in 1854, where he had been elected a fellow the previous year. He authored the illustrated Medical Anatomy, which he published in sections (1855-69). This highly merited work was the result of enormous labour and research. He also contributed chapters on pericarditis and endocarditis to Sir John Russell Reynolds' System of Medicine (1866-79).

Sibson's main interest was in trying to envisage the viscera both in a healthy and diseased state. His idea of 'medical anatomy' was to teach the topographical anatomy of the healthy viscera on the dead body, in order that the pathology student was always familiar with the position and movement of the organs. It has been said that he was `a man of continuous industry, and his numerous papers contain elaborate series of observations' (DNB, 1897, p.187).

Sibson helped to carry into effect the new constitution of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 1856, and was an active member until his death. In 1861, and from 1864-66, he was chosen by the Metropolitan Counties Branch as a member of the General Council of the BMA. In 1865 Sibson was elected to the senate of London University, in which he opposed the admission of women to degrees. He also held the position of examiner in medicine. From 1866-69 Sibson served as president of the BMA's Council and on retirement from this office became vice-president of the Association for life. He was awarded the honorary degrees of MD by Dublin University in 1867, and LLD by Durham University in 1870.

In 1870 he delivered the Croonian Lectures at the Royal College of Physicians. The following year he retired from the active staff of St Mary's and became consulting physician. In 1873 at the BMA's annual meeting he presided over the Section of Medicine. The following year he proposed that a portion of the Association's funds be available for scientific research. In 1874 he delivered the College's Lumleian Lectures and held the office of censor, in the same year, and then curator of the museum. His last contribution to medical literature was his Harveian Lectures on Bright's Disease in relation to the heart and the arteries, in 1875.

Sibson married Sarah Mary Ouvry in 1858. He was a keen Alpine climber and died suddenly whilst on holiday at Geneva, on 7 September 1876. His Collected Works (1881) were posthumously published, by William Miller Ord.

Publications:
Medical Anatomy, or, Illustrations of the Relevant Position and Movements of the Internal Organs (London, 1869)
The Nomenclature of Diseases, drawn up by a Joint Committee appointed by the Royal College of Physicians, Francis Sibson (ed.) (London, 1869)
Collected Works of Francis Sibson, W.M. Ord (ed.) (London, 1881)

James Sibree: born in Hull, England, 1836; son of the Rev James Sibree, Congregational minister, and Martha Goode Aston; educated at Hull Collegiate School; articled to a civil engineer; Assistant Surveyor, Local Board of Health, Hull, 1859-1863; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) architect of four large stone churches in Madagascar, each a memorial to a martyr of persection, and was sent to Antananarivo, 1863-1867; worked on the churches at Ambatonakanga, Ambohipotsy, Andohalo and Manjakaray, and other mission buildings; trained for the Congregational ministry at Spring Hill College, Moseley, Birmingham, 1868-1870; also carried out deputation work for the LMS; ordained in Hull, 1870; married Deborah Hannah (d 1920), daughter of the Rev J Wilberforce Richardson, Congregational minister, in London, 1870; two sons and three daughters; LMS missionary in Madagascar, 1870-1877; led the extension of mission work outside the capital, founding the first country station, at Ambohimanga, and settling there, 1870; chosen one of the LMS delegates to revise the Malagasy Bible and began work on it, 1873; accompanied the LMS deputation to Antsihanaka province, 1874; took an explorative and evangelistic journey to south-eastern Madagascar, 1876; moved to Antananarivo to work at the theological college, 1876; difficulties with the government in Madagascar forced him to withdraw, 1877-1883; undertook LMS deputation work in England, 1877-1879; appointed missionary to South India, superintending the LMS high school as Vizagapatam, 1879; returned to England owing to his wife's ill health, 1880; LMS deputation work in England, 1880-1883; returned to Madagascar as principal of the LMS theological college and with his wife engaged in other missionary activities, 1883-1915; architect of almost 100 mission buildings, including c50 churches; in the years leading up to the French invasion (1895) an outspoken supporter of Malagasy independence; chief English authority on Madagascar; received Sir G Back's Grant for his work on the geography and bibliography of Madagascar, 1892; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; Fellow of the International Society of Philology; Membre de l'Académie Malgache from 1902; honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, University of St Andrews, 1913; returned to England owing to his wife's ill health, 1915; resigned as a missionary, 1916; continued deputation work for the LMS and Bible Society, 1920s; died following an accident, 1929. Publications include: Madagascar and its People (1870); South-east Madagascar (1876); The Great African Island (1880); A Madagascar Bibliography (1885); Madagascar before the Conquest (1896); The Madagascar Mission (1907); Our English Cathedrals (2 volumes, 1911); A Naturalist in Madagascar (1915); Things Seen in Madagascar (1921); edited Register of Missionaries and Deputations of the LMS (1923); Fifty Years in Madagascar (1923), his autobiography; works in the Malagasy language; articles on Madagascar for several editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Chambers's Encyclopaedia.

James Sibree's children included several other missionaries:

James Wilberforce Sibree: born at Ambohimanga, Madagascar, 1871; studied at Cheshunt College; ordained, 1896; appointed LMS missionary to Samoa and married Gertrude Helps (d 1900), 1897; sailed to Samoa, 1898; married Lucy Phoebe Johnson (d 1937) at Apia, 1905; resigned as missionary owing to his wife's ill health, 1921; subsequently pastor at Epping, near Sydney, Australia; died there, 1927.

Mary Amelia Sibree: born at Ambohimanga, Madagascar, 1874; assistant teacher at the Girls' Central School, Antananarivo, from 1892; appointed LMS missionary and became head mistress of the school, 1898; returned to England, 1899; married the Rev Percy Milledge (1874-1907), who was appointed to the Madagascar mission, 1901; took charge of the mission following her husband's death, 1907-1908; re-appointed missionary to Madagascar, 1909; undertook deputation work in England for the LMS, 1915-1919; resigned, 1919; appointed to new work in Madagascar, 1922; at the theological college, Antananarivo, 1925-1926; returned to England for health reasons and died, 1926.

Alice Deborah Sibree: born at Antananrivo, Madagascar, 1876; studied at the London School of Medicine for Women; appointed to the Maternity Hospital, Hong Kong; dedicated and sailed, 1903; returned to England and resigned from the LMS, 1909; subsequently returned to Hong Kong and undertook voluntary medical mission work; married C C Hickling; awarded MBE for services during World War One; decorated as Sister of the Order of St John of Jerusalem; died at Hong Kong, 1928.

Elsie Isabel Sibree: born in Catford Bridge, Kent, England, 1881; educated at Walthamstow Hall; French Government Teachers' Diploma (brevet); accompanied her parents to Madagascar, 1901; became assistant French teacher at the Girls' Central School, 1902; Girls' High School, Ambatonakanga, 1904-1907; head mistress of the Girls' Central School, Antananarivo, 1907; lived in England, 1921-1930; returned to Madagascar and was appointed warden of the theological college, Ambohipotsy, also superintending the district of Ambohiptsy from 1938; engaged in other missionary work alongside her educational work; retired, 1954; died in Sevenoaks, 1969.

James Sibree's niece, Dorothy Sibree, was born in Hull, England, 1882; trained at Cheltenham Women's Training College; appointed to Mirzapur, India, and sailed, 1915; transferred to the Benares mission, 1921; married the Rev W G Murphy of the Gopijang mission, 1923; transferred with her husband to Travancore, 1927; died at Neyyoor, 1927.

James Sibree was born in Hull on 14 April 1836. In his early life, Sibree served as an engineer's pupil and worked for the Hull Board of Health (1859-1863). In 1863 he sailed to Madagascar having been appointed Architect of the Memorial Churches, Tananarive, for the London Missionary Society (LMS). He worked on the churches at Ambatonakanga, Ambohipotsy, Andohalo and Manjakaray. He returned to England in 1867 to study at Spring Hill College, Moseley, near Birmingham. During his time at Spring Hill he also carried out deputation work for the London Missionary Society. James Sibree was ordained in 1870. He was also married in February of that year to Deborah Richardson. Together with his wife, he returned Madagascar as a missionary and was stationed at Ambohimanga. He worked on a revision of the Malagasy Bible, took part in a deputation and in 1876 went to work at the Theological Institution in Tananarive. In September 1877 the Sibrees returned to England, owing to problems with the local government. From 1877 to 1879, he carried out deputation work in England. In November 1879 he was appointed as Principal of the London Missionary Society High School at Vizagapatam, South India. However, due to illness the Sibrees returned to England in June 1880. From 1880 to 1883 he once more carried out deputation work in England. In 1883, he and his wife were re-appointed to Madagascar, where Sibree became Principal of the LMS College at Tananarive. The Sibrees left Madagascar, arriving back in England in November 1916. Deborah Sibree became ill, and a great deal of James Sibree's time was devoted to nursing her. She died on 21 July 1920. In the last years of his life, James Sibree continued to carry out much of the deputation work for the LMS and the Bible Society. In 1923, James Sibree completed the Register of Missionaries and Deputations of the LMS.

Sialang Rubber Estates Ltd

Sialang Rubber Estates Limited was registered in 1909 to acquire the Sialang, Batoe Gingging and Tebing Tinggi estates on the east coast of Sumatra. In 1961 it was acquired by London Sumatra Plantations Limited (CLC/B/112-110). In April 1982 it became a private company.

George Edward Shuttleworth received his medical education at King's College Hospital Medical School, and obtained his MD degree at Heidelberg in 1869. After a short period at Earlswood Asylum, he was appointed Superintendent of the Royal Albert Asylum at Lancaster in 1870, a post which he held for twenty-three years. On retirement in 1893, he devoted himself to the study of insanity, and was particularly interested in the problems of mentally-defective children and their treatment. His important work on that subject was published in 1895, and a fifth edition appeared in 1922. As consultant in London, he was active in the training of personnel for service with the care of these unfortunate children, and was responsible for important changes in the lunacy laws.

Wallace Beresford Shute (b.1911), BA, MD, FRCS, FAC, FACOG, Hon FRCOG, graduated with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts (Honour Science) 1933 and Doctor of Medicine 1936 from the University of Western Ontario. After six years' post-graduate training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Detroit, Montreal and Chicago, he practised for a short time in Canada, before volunteering for the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1943. He was Gynaecologist to the Canadian Women's Army in England before demobilisation in 1946. He then practised in Ottawa until his retirement in 1985. Dr Shute has made several significant contributions to medical science, particularly with his invention of the Shute Parallel Obstetrical Forceps. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the RCOG in June 1994 (bibliography: see Dr Shute's biography and c.v at S48/1).

Percy George Shute was born 1894. He joined the 10th Devon regiment, 1914, which led to his first experience of tropical diseases, as he contracted dysentery and was invalided to England in 1917. He worked at a pathology laboratory under the malariologist, Sir Ronald Ross whilst convalescing, who taught him how to stain malaria parasites and dissect mosquitoes. Shute was later employed in the eradication from Britain's civilian population of malaria; went to Vienna, where he learned the techniques of malaria treatment for general paralysis of the insane from Professor Julius Wagner-Jauregg, 1922 and was later involved in the establishment of the Mott Clinic (Malaria Reference Library), at Horton Hospital in Essex, 1925, where he worked until retirement, becoming an authority on malaria and the British mosquito.

Shute became the Assistant Director of the Malaria Reference Library, 1944-1973 and spent some time working within the Department of Entomology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1950s. Shute died 26th January 1977.

Publications include: Laboratory technique for the study of malaria by Percy G. Shute and Majorie E. Maryon (J. & A. Churchill, London, 1960).

Percy George Shute OBE FRES (1894-1977) was a malariologist. While convalescing in the Manor Hospital, Epsom, from dysentery contracted during military service in Macedonia in 1917, Shute worked at the pathology laboratory under Sir Ronald Ross, who taught him how to stain malaria parasites and dissect mosquitoes. On recovery, he was employed in the eradication from Britain's civilian population of malaria probably spread by the return of infected personnel from Salonika. In 1922 he went to Vienna, where he learned from Professor Julius Wagner-Jauregg the techniques of malaria treatment for general paralysis of the insane. On his return he was closely involved in the establishment in 1925 of the Mott Clinic (later known as the Malaria Reference Laboratory) at Horton Hospital, Epsom. He spent the rest of his working life there and became an authority on British mosquitoes and on malaria and its causative organisms. He was Assistant Director of the Mott Clinic for the years 1944-1973. The Mott Clinic team discovered the third cycle of the malaria parasite in the human liver in 1948.

For further details, see obituary, British Medical Journal, 26 Feb 1977, and H.R. Rollin "The Horton Malaria Laboratory ... 1925-1975" in Journal of Medical Biography, 1994, 2, 94-97.

First incorporated in 1957 as the Earls Court Standfitting Company Limited, the company changed its name to Showprops Limited in 1988. This company was a stand fitting and exhibition furniture rental business owned by Earls Court and Olympia Limited and later operated as a subsidiary under P&O Exhibition Services Limited.

Dissolved in 2004.

Registered offices:

1 Old Burlington Street, London Borough of Westminster (2004)

Company No. 00580792

Born, 1916; educated Radley and the Royal Military College Sandhurst; South Wales Borderers in North West Frontier, 1937; served Assam and Burma, 1942, 1945; New Guinea, 1943-1944; command of 4 Bn 6 Gurkha Rifles in India, 1945; Staff College, 1946-1947; on staff of Headquarters Malaya and battalion and brigade commander during the Malayan Emergency,1950-1960; retired from the Army in 1964; civil service in Home Office, 1964-1970; Secretary to successive Speakers of the House of Commons, 1970-1982; Colonel, 6 Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles, 1978-1983; died, 2001.

: Frank Short was born on 19 June 1857, at Wollaston, Worcester, the only son of Job Till Short, engineer, and his wife, Emma Millward. Leaving school at the age of thirteen, Short trained as an engineer, and was an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers from 1883 until his resignation in 1904. For a short time he attended evening classes in the Stourbridge School of Art and then, after a period of engineering work in London, abandoned this profession and entered the National Art Training School (later the Royal College of Art), South Kensington, also attending a life class at the Westminster School of Art, under Frederick Brown.

While still a student at South Kensington in 1885 Short won high approval from John Ruskin for some of his mezzotints after Turner's Liber Studiorum'. With Ruskin's encouragement he devoted much of his life to the reproduction of Turner's paintings, and mezzotinted forty plates of theLiber', including thirty based on unpublished plates or unengraved drawings.

Short revived mezzotint and made it a new and living art in his translations not only of Turner, but of Reynolds, Constable, De Wint, Watts, and other painters. He showed new possibilities for the medium in using its qualities of tone and mass for his original landscapes, such as The Lifting Cloud' (1901), andWhen the Weary Moon was in the Wane' (1894). Entirely his own, too, was his work in aquatint, another method which he revived and developed. Using his engineering skills he made his own tools and invented new ones.

His early work as an etcher won praise from J A M Whistler who, from 1888 to 1900, frequently visited Short's studio for help with matters of technique or of printing. Short's etched work in bitten line, or dry-point, or soft-ground, was a direct interpretation of nature by means of straightforward, frequently outdoor, work upon the plate. Like Rembrandt and Whistler, he believed firmly in purity of line and clean printing, as may be seen in such plates as Sleeping till the Flood' (1887),Low Tide and the Evening Star and Rye's Long Pier Deserted' (1888), and `A Wintry Blast on the Stourbridge Canal' (1890).

Short's outstanding powers led to his appointment in 1891 as teacher of etching at South Kensington; he later became professor of engraving, and retired in 1924.

He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) in 1917, but although he was interested in painting, and produced scholarly and poetic water-colours throughout his life, his main work lay in etching and engraving. He had been elected a fellow of the (Royal) Society of Painter-Etchers in 1885, and he succeeded Sir F Seymour Haden as second president in 1910, retiring in 1938. He was elected A.R.A. in 1906, the R.A. (the first engraver to reach the higher rank) in 1911; and was treasurer of the Royal Academy from 1919 to 1932. He was awarded gold medals for engraving at Paris in 1889 and 1900; and was master of the Art-Workers' Guild in 1901. He was knighted in 1911.

Short married in 1889 Esther Rosamond Barker (died 1925), and had one son, who died on active service in 1916, and one daughter. He died at Ditchling, Sussex, 22 April 1945.

In 1893 the Vestry of St Leonard's, Shoreditch, inaugurated Trade Classes for the local youth. Although these were not aimed solely at the furniture trade, furniture and related trades were the foremost trades of the area and so the principal focus of the classes. These were held at 35 and 37 Hoxton Street and became known as the Shoreditch Municipal Technical School. By 1897 a formal body for the management of the school had been established and the Technical Education Board (TEB) of the London County Council (LCC) had agreed to purchase the former Haberdashers' Aske's School in Pitfield Street as premises.

The new institution, renamed the Shoreditch Technical Institute (STI), was run by the TEB with a local advisory committee, and opened in 1899, with 162 students. A Domestic Economy School for Girls opened at Pitfield Street in 1900 (and closed in 1918 as demand for places fell during World War One). A Trade School for 14-16 year old boys opened in 1901, and a similar school for girls opened in 1906, both at Pitfield Street. Teacher training started at the STI in 1919. During World War Two the STI was given over to army training and the trade schools were evacuated elsewhere. After the war, Pitfield Street was given over to teacher training until 1951. The remnant of the STI was based in Hammond Square, Shoreditch, and was re-established as the Technical College for the Furnishing Trades at Pitfield Street in 1951, with a new emphasis on design as well as craftsmanship and aimed at post 18 and adult education.

In 1964 the Institute was renamed the London College of Furniture (LCF). The College expanded rapidly during the 1960s as the range of courses increased to cover, amongst others, cabinet making, upholstery, wood machining and musical instrument construction. The existing accommodation was inadequate and during the 1960s plans were made to move the LCF to new premises at 41-71 Commercial Road, Stepney. Occupation took place in 1971 and the new building was officially opened in 1972. By 1975 there were approximately 500 full time and sandwich students and 1000 part timers, in three main divisions: Furniture, Interior Design and Musical Instruments. During the 1980s the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) attempted to involve the LCF in its plans to create a single London Institute out of the several art and technical colleges which it ran. The LCF was reluctant however, as staff and students felt that its profile was unsuitable to merger within the proposed London Institute, and that instead its future would be best served by an alliance with the City of London Polytechnic. The LCF joined the Polytechnic as part of the Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Design and Manufacture in 1990. The Polytechnic became London Guildhall University in 1992.

Shoreditch Technical Institute founded a Girls Trade School in 1906 to train girls for the garment trades. The school offered trade courses in dressmaking, embroidery and upholstery and was set up by the London County Council Technical Education Board. During the nineteenth century both skilled men and women employed in the clothing industry earned their trade through an apprenticeship, but by the end of the century the system was not training sufficient workers and trade schools were established to provide more skilled labour.

Pupils were taken from the age of 12 following elementary education, and were trained for two years to work primarily in London's West End couturier houses and hair salons. Women were employed in the ready-to-wear trade centred on London's East End, or in the fashionable dressmaking and allied trades in the West End based around the South Kensington and Oxford Street areas. Women working in this area were highly skilled, and the early needle-trade schools in London, including Shoreditch, trained women for this high quality couture work. Almost all pupils obtained employment on completion of their courses. All pupils followed a curriculum that was two-thirds trade subject and one-third general education. Following the success of the full time courses the school started to run a variety of day release and evening courses for women already working in the trade. The school worked very closely with the trades and had consultative committees that were almost exclusively made up of members from the industries. These committees advised in the suitability of courses for the prevailing employment conditions in the clothing industry at the time, and courses were introduced or adapted accordingly. For example, with the developments in clothing mass production the consultative committees introduced further wholesale classes at Shoreditch

The 1944 Education Act required pupils to continue full time general education until 15 and gave Shoreditch technical college status. The junior courses were discontinued and senior courses expanded. Management courses were introduced. Shoreditch merged with Clapham Trade School and became Shoreditch College for the Garment Trades in 1955, including men on their courses. Renamed Shoreditch College for the Clothing Industry in 1966, the college amalgamated with Barrett Street Technical College (formerly Barrett Street Trade School) in 1967 to form the London College for the Garment Trades, later renamed the London College of Fashion.

Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.

Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.

In 1774, the Shoreditch Parish Vestry were authorized by an Act of Parliament to construct a new workhouse for the parish of St Leonard's, situated on Kingsland Road and administered by the Parish Poor Trustees. When the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced the parish did not fall under its jurisdiction because of the pre-existing Parish Poor Trustees. However, in 1847 inspectors found that the workhouse was badly overcrowded and unsanitary. The Trustees began alterations and modernization works, and built a separate infirmary wing. Nevertheless, in 1859 the Poor Law Board (later the Local Government Board) set up a separate Board of Guardians of the Poor to oversee the infirmary. In 1861 the Guardians commissioned a new workhouse on the same site.

The Trustees were also responsible for the construction of Brentwood Industrial School, Essex, which was later shared with Hackney Union under the Brentwood School District. In 1855 the provision for children was expanded with the addition of Hornchurch Cottage Homes, Essex, a development of family-home style houses, arranged like a village and intended to be more friendly than a large institution.

Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.

The manor of Ickenham was formed by joining two holdings, both described in the Domeday Book as "Ticheham", which were united under Earl Roger some time before 1094. The manor passed through various owners until 1334 when it was purchased by merchant John Charlton. He left the estate to his daughter Juette, wife of Nicholas Shorediche. The Shorediche family retained the manor until 1812 when it passed to George Robinson, probably after foreclosure on a mortgage debt. George Robinson's will was disputed and Chancery ordered that his property be sold in 1857. Ickenham was purchased by Thomas Truesdale Clarke and merged with his neighbouring manor of Swakeley's.

'Ickenham: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 102-104 (available online).

Paul Rycaut Stanbury Churchward was born in 1858. He joined the army in 1878 and served in the Afghan war, 1877-80; the Bechuanaland expedition, 1884-85; the South African war (Boer war), 1899-1902; and the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, 1915-1917. He retired with the rank of Colonel, and died in 1935.

The manor of Ickenham was conveyed to John Charlton in 1334. The manor was inherited by Charlton's daughter Juette, who was married to Nicholas Shorediche. The estate stayed in the Shorediche family until 1812 when it was passed to George Robinson after Michael Shorediche could not pay the mortgage. Michael married an East Indian heiress in 1813 but the family were unable to regain the manor.

From: 'Ickenham: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 102-104 (available online).

Peter Shore (1924-2001) was born in Great Yarmouth, the son of a commercial sea captain. He attended Quarry Bank Grammar School, Liverpool and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied History; he served in the RAF as a flying officer from 1943-1946. In 1948 he joined the Labour Party and was employed in the Research Department, producing the tract 'Industry and Society' (1957), and becoming its head from 1959-1964. Shore stood for St Ives, Cornwall, in 1950 and Halifax in 1959 before being elected for Stepney in 1964. He retained the seat, which became Bethnal Green and Stepney, until 1997. He was Harold Wilson's private paliamentary secretary from 1965-1966, then beoming joint parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Technology (Tony Benn) from 1966-1967 and at the Department of Economic Affairs in 1967. He joined the Cabinet in 1967 upon his appointment as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (1967-1969). When the Department for Economic Affairs was dissolved in 1969 Shore remained in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Deputy Leader of the House (1969-1970). While the Labour Party was in opposition Shore became opposition spokesman on Europe (1971-1974) and with the Labour Party's return to power he was Secretary of State for Trade (1974 - 1976) and Secretary of State for the Environment (1976-1979). During the Labour Party's period in opposition from 1979-1987 Shore services as opposition spokesman on foreign affairs, Treasury and Economic Affairs and Trade and Industry as well as being Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He was a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs (1987-1997) and the Committee on Standards in Public Life (1994-2001). He was created Baron Shore of Stepney in 1997.

Born 1917; educated at St Paul's and Magdalen College, Oxford University; served World War Two, 1939-45, in the Royal Artillery, 1940-46; on staff, Financial Times, 1947-57; Foreign Editor, Financial Times, 1950-57; Economic Editor, The Observer, 1958-61; Director of Studies, 1961-68, Research Fellow, 1969-71, and Director, 1972-77, Royal Institute of International Affairs; Chairman, Social Science Research Council, 1969-71; Member, Royal Commission on Trade Unions, 1965-68; Member, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Review Committee on Overseas Representation, 1968-69; Reith Lecturer, 1972; Fellow, Imperial College of Science and Technology, 1970; Knight 1978; Professor of Economics, European University Institute, Florence, 1978-1981; died 1981. Publications: International economic relations: the western system in the 1960s and 1970s (Sage Publications, London, 1976); European integration in the second phase: the scope and limitiations of alliance points (University of Essex, 1977); ed Zuzanna Shonfield The use of public power (Oxford University Press, 1982); ed Zuzanna Shonfield In defence of the mixed economy (Oxford University Press, London, 1984); editor of Social indicators and social policy (Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1972); North American and Western European economic policies (Macmillan, London, 1971); The attack on world poverty (Chatto and Windus, London, 1960); British economic policy since the War (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958); Europe: journey to an unknown destination (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973); A man beside himself (Andre Deutsch, London, 1964); Modern capitalism: the changing balance of public and private power (Oxford University Press, London, 1969).

A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.

From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".

Shirreff entered the Navy in 1796, was promoted to lieutenant in 1804 and to captain in 1809. Between 1817 and 1821 he commanded the ANDROMACHE in the Pacific, at the time of the Chilean War of Independence. He also despatched Edward Bransfield (c 1783-1852), Master of the ANDROMACHE, in the hired ship WILLIAMS OF BLYTH to claim the South Shetland Islands, 1819 to 1820, for Britain. Between 1830 and 1837 Shirreff was Captain of the Port of Gibraltar under the Colonial Service. In 1838 he was appointed to Captain-Superintendent of Deptford Victualling Yard. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1846.

James Shipton entered the Navy in 1803. He served in HMS THUNDERER 1803 to1805, HIBERNIA 1805 to 1806, PRINCE OF WALES and PENELOPE 1806 to 1809, as midshipman and mate. He reached the rank and lieutenant in 1810, invalided early in 1812, and was on half pay from 1815.

Francis Shipton was promoted to lieutenant in 1884. He held the rank of lieutenant-commander during World War One, having previously retired from the Navy.

James Shipton entered the Navy in 1803. He served in HMS THUNDERER 1803 to1805, HIBERNIA 1805 to 1806, PRINCE OF WALES and PENELOPE 1806 to 1809, as midshipman and mate. He reached the rank and lieutenant in 1810, invalied early in 1812, and was on half pay from 1815.

Born 1907; as a child he travelled frequently between Ceylon and Europe; became interested in mountaineering in the Alps and Norway; went to Kenya to work on a coffee plantation, 1928; with Percy Wyn-Harris made the second ascent of Batian and the first of Nelion, the twin peaks of Mount Kenya; made the first complete traverse of the twin peaks of Mount Kenya with Harold William Tilman; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1930-1977; joined the expedition led by Francis Sydney Smythe to Kamet in Garhwal Himalaya, 1931; undertook a series of Himalayan ventures throughout the 1930s; Mount Everest expedition of 1933 on which he reached 27,900 feet; with Tilman and three Sherpas he spent three months in Garhwal Himalaya and forced an entry, for the first time, up the Rishi gorge and into the Nanda Devi sanctuary which, with its satellite peaks, they surveyed; expeditions to the north side of Everest, 1935, 1936, and 1938; two journeys of exploration to the remote areas of the Karakoram bordering on Tibet and Sinkiang (Xinjiang), 1937 and 1938; Patron's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1938; At the outbreak of the Second World War, Shipton was engaged on the second Karakoram expedition; consul-general at Kashgar; returned to Britain, 1942; Foreign Office posting to Persia; second tour of duty at Kashgar, 1946-1948; consul-general at Kunming, Yunnan, 1949-1951; reconnaissance of the south side of Everest, 1951; warden of the Outward Bound Trust school in Eskdale, 1952-1954; undertook a series of exploratory journeys in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 1958-1964; adviser to the Chilean government in the boundary dispute with Argentina; President of the Alpine Club, 1965-1967; died, 1977.

Publications:
Nanda Devi (1936)
Blank on the Map (1938)
Upon that Mountain (1948)
Mountains of Tartary (1951)
Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition (1951)
Land of Tempest (1963)
That Untravelled World (1969)
FRGS 1930-1977; .

The Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association was formed in 1967 by the integration of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation (founded in 1899), the Dry Dock Owners' and Repairers' Central Council (founded in 1910) and the Shipbuilding Conference (founded in 1928). Before the formation of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation, a 'Federation of Shipbuilders and Engineers of England, Scotland and Ireland' had been constituted. As early as 1890 there was a feeling that it would be advantageous if the association were to be confined to shipbuilding members only, but it was 1897 -- the same year as the engineers strike for a forty-eight hour week --before the engineering firms withdrew. They then formed their own body, the Engineering Employers' Federation. The National Federation of Shipbuilders, as the old association was briefly known, was dissolved in 1899 with the formation of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation. Most of the local Shipbuilders' Associations then in existence were represented, including those of Aberdeen, Clyde, Barrow, Hull, Tyne, Tees and Wear. Responsibility for negotiation with the shipyard trade unions was undertaken by the central body on behalf of the membership; in this period several important national agreements were concluded, notably that of 1909, which laid down procedures to be followed in future negotiations and established a framework for conciliation and arbitration. This, with a review in 1913, was maintained until the beginning of the war when the shipyards came within the provisions of the legislation for the compulsory settlement of disputes. There was also a comprehensive review of labour relations by a joint Committee of management and labour which led in 1928 to an agreement with the S.E.F. and the shipbuilding trade unions on the procedures to be followed in future disputes, which, with some modifications, lasted to the present day.

The Dry Dock Owners' and Repairers' Central Council was formed in 1910 by members of several local ship-repairing associations to ensure greater uniformity of schedules and rates and to contain the extreme competition which was then taking place. The Shipbuilding Conference, a national commercial organization representative of the whole industry, was set up in 1928 at a time when the industry was experiencing severe difficulties. In an attempt to solve the problem of economically unsound competition between firms in the 1930s, one of the Conference's first actions was to produce a 'tendering expenses scheme', whereby one per cent of the contract price was intended for tendering expenses to be divided among the tenderers in accordance with an agreed scale. Another system which it- instituted was notification to the Conference of enquiries received by builders which led to the introduction of 'Job Conferences', an arrangement for establishing co-operation between firms and maintaining reasonable price levels. There was a general recognition during this period that the major task of the industry was to reduce building capacity which led to the formation in 1920 of National Shipbuilders Security Ltd. The main object of this organization was the purchase by voluntary negotiation of redundant shipyards. By 1938 it had reduced building capacity by purchase by 1.3 million tons. National Shipbuilders Security Ltd went into voluntary liquidation in 1958.

The National Association of Marine Enginebuilders, formed in 1939, operated as an affiliate of the Conference, since many of its members were neither shipbuilders nor ship-repairers. Its members' workforces negotiated with the Engineering Employers' Federation rather than the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation, and this relationship continued after the formation of the Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association in 1967. In this year the three organizations joined to become the Shipbuilders and Repairers National Association. Within the new body separate boards were set up.

Emanuel Shinwell, 1884-1986, was born in Spitalfields, London, but began work at the Scottish Wholesale Co-operative Society in 1909. By 1912, he had become chairman of the Glasgow Trades Council, a position that he held again from 1916 to 1919. His involvement with the 40 hours strike committee in 1919 led to his imprisonment for 5 months. Shinwell entered politics in 1922, becoming the Labour MP for Linlithgow, and rising to become Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Mines in 1924, Financial Secretary for the War Office, 1929-1930, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of Mines, 1930-1931. In 1935, he defeated J Ramsey Macdonald in the election for Seaham. Lord Shinwell declined to serve in Churchill's wartime government, preferring to remain an independent backbencher, active in broadcasting and opposing ship production policy. During this time he was chairman of the Central Committee for Reconstruction. He joined the post-war Labour government as Minister of Fuel and Power, and was given the task of nationalising the mines. The difficulties and failures of this task led to his demotion from the cabinet and transfer to Defence as Secretary of State for War, 1947-1950. He returned to the cabinet as Minister of Defence, 1950-1951, and maintained an interest in defence issues for the rest of his career. He was also chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party 1964-1967.

Buxton Stilltoe graduated from University College Hospital Medical School, and became FRCS in 1860. He practised at Finsbury Circus, and was surgeon to the London Lock Hospital from 1887 to 1909 [cf BMJ 1917 (1), p. 33].

The log book was kept by Mr Austin Brewer, headmaster of Shillington Street Boys' School, Clapham Junction, while the school was evacuated to Cranleigh, Surrey from September 1939 to August 1943. There is only one entry in the log book before May 1940 when it records that Allfarthing Lane, Shillington Street, Swaffield Road and Waldron Road Schools combined under Mr Brewer. In July 1940 Saint Peter's Church of England School, Wapping arrived in Cranleigh, having been re-evacuated from Brighton, but their children did not combine with the children from the other London Schools until May 1941. By May 1943 the number of pupils was falling. Mr Brewer decided to retire and the London school children combined with the local Church of England School.

Sir Alfred Sherman was born on 10 November 1919 in Hackney, London. At seventeen he fought in the International Brigade on the republican side of the Spanish civil war. During the Second World War he worked in field security in the Middle East and after as an administrator in the enemy occupied territories. He studied at the London School of Economics after leaving the army and was a member of the student branch of the Communist Party whilst there.

He graduated in 1950 and briefly became a teacher before going on to become a journalist, working for the Jewish Chronicle. In 1965 he was recruited to the Daily Telegraph where he voiced his opinions on local government. He served as a Conservative councillor in Kensington and Chelsea between 1971 and 1978.

In April 1974 Alfred Sherman co-founded (along with Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher) the Centre for Policy Studies and became its first Director. The Centre was set up to promote free market ideas and influence Conservative thinking. Sherman researched and wrote speeches for both Joseph and Thatcher, becoming her aide and speech writer until 1983. His speeches and journalism included many ideas which are thought of as key to Thatcherism, including curbing trade union powers, cutting taxes and public spending, control of the money supply and reform of the welfare system to reduce dependence on it. Sherman was most influential during the Conservative Party's period of opposition between 1974 and 1979 but he was sacked as the Centre's research director in 1984 after disagreements over the role of the Centre. Sherman believed it shouldn't be too close to the Conservative Party to give it freer range to criticise ministers. Sherman was knighted in 1983 but no longer had access to Thatcher after he left the Centre.

He later became a public adviser to the National Bus Corporation and the Bosnia Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. He died from pneumonia on 26 August 2006 at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Information taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.

A small tremor struck London on 8 February 1750; followed on 8 March 1750 by a more powerful earthquake. Thomas Sherlock (1677-1761), bishop of London, preached a sermon at Saint Paul's Cathedral in which he claimed that the earthquakes were sent by God as punishment for the sinfulness of London's citizens; criticising their drinking, lewdness, idleness, debauchery, wantonness and blasphemy. The sermon was published and proved extremely popular, selling thousands of copies. On 8 April many citizens fled London, expecting another, even greater earthquake to strike.

The office of Sheriff is of greater antiquity than any other in the City of London and is mentioned in Anglo Saxon laws of the seventh century. The Sheriffs, alongside Wicreves and Portreeves, exercised the King's authority over the citizens, collected royal revenue and enforced royal justice. Henry I granted the City the right to choose their own Sheriff in 1132, together with the right to choose the Sheriff of Middlesex. The two sheriffs held office jointly as the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex. The right to appoint the Middlesex sheriff was lost in 1888, although the City continued to elect two sheriffs for the City of London. At the same date the fee formerly payable to the Exchequer was redeemed by the Corporation so that all estate and interest in the office of Sheriff belonged to the Corporation and all fees from the shrievalty were received by the City. At first sheriffs were elected on St Matthew's Day (21 September) but it was advanced to 1 August in 1538 and later to Midsummer Day. The office was held for a year and no person who had served as sheriff once was eligible to serve again. In 1385 the Common Council stipulated that every Mayor must first serve as Sheriff to test his suitability for the post.

The sheriffs were expected to attend the Lord Mayor in the discharge of his official functions and to join him in works of charity and at events. They attended the Courts of Aldermen and Common Council as well as Common Hall and the Court of Husting. They were Execution Officers at the Central Criminal Court and had to be in attendance to carry out directions given by the Judges. They also had to attend the Sessions to see the Judges into Court, and be present when a capital sentence was passed. The sheriff was also required to wait upon the Sovereign and ascertain the royal will and pleasure as to the reception of addresses from the Corporation. The sheriff also presented petitions from the Corporation to the House of Commons.

The modern sheriffs are elected on Midsummer's Day (24 June) by the City livery companies. Their duties remain similar to those of their historical predecessors, including attending the Lord Mayor in carrying out his official duties, attending the sessions at the Central Criminal Court in the Old Bailey and presenting petitions from the City to Parliament at the Bar at the House of Commons.